Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Post-Vacation Catch Up (Part One)

That's right, children. Your Mama took a short vacation in a foreign country where the WiFi service was, at best, unexpectedly spotty and mostly non-existent at the otherwise spectacular four-story beach house we rented with our dear old pals Fiona Trambeau, Chow Lee, The Laundress, and a delightful if sometimes vociferous trio of (now extraordinarily tan) Minnesotan niños.

Even though some of y'all harbor the damn fool (and foul-mouthed) notion that this celebrity property gossip does not deserve a few days vacation every now and then—sticks and stone, puppies, sticks and stones—we decided that rather than spend the better part of our day schlepping to an internet cafe to wallow in the murky world of celebrity real estate we'd rather loll on the beach all day with a cooler packed with gin and tonic fixin's. Anyways, we're back in the saddle so let's get our celebrity real estate feet wet with a catch up of some of the real estate doings of rich and famous that went down (or came out) in our absence.

Twilight superstar (and reluctant celebrity) Robert Pattinson officially listed his historic and celebrity pedigreed pad in the Los Feliz are of Los Angeles with a $6.75 million price tag and the ever-industrious kids at Curbed have all the photos of the three bedroom and 3.5 bathroom Spanish Colonial-style residence that Your Mama heard through the celebrity real estate gossip grapevine was staged by one of southern California's leading ladies of celebrity home staging. (More photos here, if you please.)

Twihards take note: Your beloved Mister Pattinson moved some time ago—so the scuttlebutt goes—to an unattractive rented mansion in a gated enclave in Beverly Hills so a fanatical drive by his former digs in Los Feliz will likely yield little more than an icy stare from a (probably armed) guard (listing photos: Michael McNamara/Shooting LA for Partners Trust)

The property gossips at the Chicago Tribune revealed that Billy Corgan of the Grammy-winning 1990s alt-rock band The Smashing Pumpkins expanded his lakefront estate in hoity-toity Highland Park (IL)—about 30 minutes north of downtown Chicago—with the $1.25 million purchase of a 4,600+ square foot house on just over an acre that's immediately next door to the 18-room, 9,606 square foot mansion on six-plus acres (above) he purchased back in 2003. The new house was originally built as the coach house to Mister Corgan's mansion.

Our research shows Mister Corgan—who now owns a professional wresting promotions company and a Highland Park tea house—also owns a home tucked deep into a canyon in Beverly Hills (CA) that he picked up in June, 2009, for $3,850,000. (aerial photo: Google)

Celebrity gossip juggernaut TMZ let the cat out of the bag about how bubblegum pop boy bander Kevin Jonas and his preggers wife, Danielle, listed their suburban macmansion in Denville, NJ—the one featured on their ongoing reality show Married to Jonas—for $2.2 million.

According to the The Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Address Aerial, back in June (2013) the couple plunked down $825,000for a more privately situated two-plus acre spread just over a mile away in nearby Boonton (NJ) where they (reportedly) plan to build a big new house in which to bring up baby. (listing photos: Terrie O'Connor Realtors via TMZ)

Retired professional basketballer and sports world entrepreneur Michael Jordan has fruitlessly had his 56,000 square foot suburban Chicago (IL) mega-mansion up for sale on the open market since early 2012 when it popped up wit a $29 million asking price, later lowered to $21 million. In addition to the home's 9 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms there's a full-sized indoor basketballs court complete with locker rooms and the whole shebang.

The real estate gossip gals at The Wall Street Journal reported late last week that that the six-foot-six money-minting product endorsement machine and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats basketball team recently decided to put the gated 7.39-acre estate out for auction. There's isn't a minimum bid but it does require a $250,000 deposit just to bid so that should rule out any less financially endowed moe-rons who think it might be cute to make an offer of $48 and an over-sized edible fruit basket. (listing photos: JS Eckart Photography for Concierge Auctions)

6 comments:

Pattinson -- This is the kind of Med our dear Rebbe hopes to entice me with; overall, not a bad preservation of a vintage property, but some of the wall treatments strike me as disturbing, and though the grounds are lovely, the effect, possibly because of the lighting, strikes me as a tad too "theme-park-ish" -- almost "Pirates of the Caribbean";

Corgan -- What can one say besides that it warms the cockles of my heart (and other parts) when someone re-integrates a previously sub-divided estate;

Jonas -- Denville "manse"? Oy. But there is a certain undeniable charm in planning a new house in the town that is home to the legendary Boontonware;

To further entice you, the Rabbi would steam-remove the offensive wallpaper from the Pattison house, personally eliminate every second or third outdoor light with her Galatz, and maintain in perpetuity the Katharine Hepburn screening of Bringing Up Baby, all with pure intent to enhance your nascent appreciation for vintage Mediterranean homes.

Re: PattinsonAny bets as to how long it will take and what he will get for it?A year ago David Hyde Pierce and Brian Hargrove got $7,050,000 for their 8000+ square feet beauty on Inverness.Pattinson's house is half the size, although on one of the best LF streets and offering lots of privacy.

Leo's who knows TriBeCa walk thru description is perplexingly not one of the unit available or in contract on the agent's site.

Pattinson's place is spectacular, albeit hi-maintenance. Must be two full size moving vans worth of ID in there. Yup, Mama, nicely done, but box away half that tabletop jazz. Distracting. Oh, and that broken entry gate ... someone trying to get in (?), or out?

LGB/LB, exactly (!) on your theme park-ish observation. I was close; a compilation of several good hotels I've known (and not as a bar stool warmer in a slinky mini, lol).